There’s nothing quite like a loaf of homemade fresh bread. I know a bread making machine is still cheating somewhat to say that all our bread is home made, but it still tastes better than shop bought loaves. When I’m on the road, and the sandwiches I’ve got in my backpack, are made from bread, made in the bread maker, it brings a piece of home with me at lunchtime.

On Sunday, I was running the breadmaker for a fresh loaf (we normally get through a couple of loaves in a week), but it was making some very strange noises on the mixing and kneading cycles, like the pan wasn’t properly connected to the motor, or the gears/belt were slipping. I hope it’s something simple, although our machine is getting on a bit in age, it was secondhand when it was given to us and it does get a lot of use, so it might simply just be worn out.

I’ll be making another loaf later in the week, so I’ll see what happens. It might however be time for another machine or back to shop bought bread for a while.

My daughter’s had to be replaced after a few years – it worked, but not very well and the new one made it clear what they’d been missing. When I make bread, I use the dough hook on the food mixer, I like to pretend I’m doing all the work but kneading is beyond me nowadays.